Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Mocking a disaster as "divine punishment" is exactly the kind of line that provokes Japan's online crowd, and against the backdrop of worsening Japan–China relations it turned into a tit-for-tat exchange of insults. The trigger was a Gendai Business article by Daisuke Kondo reporting extreme posts circulating on Chinese social media — "this quake is divine punishment," "let's wipe Japan off the earth by 2030." The piece also recalled that 15 years ago, during the Great East Japan Earthquake, Chinese television covered the disaster around the clock, and that contrast fed comments about how the online mood has changed. How widely these posts actually spread in China is unclear.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Counter-fire, not just anger — Many shot back by pointing at China's own recurring floods: "worry about your own rain damage first," "have you even finished cleaning up your floods?"
  • Contempt for the framing — Others dismissed the "divine punishment" idea as absurdly outdated: "what century are these people from?"
  • Escalating exchange — Some mirrored the original "wipe them out" line back at the posters, turning it into a trade of insults.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Japanese reactions to Chinese social-media abuse over the Kumamoto quake

Counter-reactions from Japanese users to an article reporting extreme anti-Japan posts on the Chinese internet.

現代ビジネス
現代ビジネス
@gendai_biz
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「今回の震災は天罰だ。2030年までに日本を地球上から消滅させよう」…中国で飛び交う「熊本地震」への罵詈雑言 gendai.media/articles/-/170… #現代ビジネス

gendai.media「今回の震災は天罰だ。2030年までに日本を地球上から消滅させよう」…中国で飛び交う「熊本地震」への罵詈雑言（週刊現代,近藤 大介） | 現代ビジネス | 講談社熊本地震に関する報道が続く中、中国メディアは震災を淡々と伝える一方、外交部の報道官は日本を非難している。SNSでは過激な意見が飛び交い、「天罰」や「核実験」の陰謀論が広がる。過去の震災時とは対照的な反応が見られ、両国の関係性が浮き彫りになっている。
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Sources: 2ch

Comments:

  • "We're not the kind of people who get shaken by a tremor this minor."
  • "Honestly, you lot should be worrying about your own torrential-rain damage."
  • "If divine punishment might strike anyone in Japan, then all our Chinese guests are welcome to head home, lol."
  • "More people probably died from China's dam releases than in the Kumamoto quake."
  • "Whatever — just stop looking our way."
  • "Whenever something goes wrong inside China, they lash out at Japan."
  • "So, have you finished recovering from your floods yet?"
  • "Still thinking earthquakes are divine punishment — what century are these people from?"
  • "China isn't so much a land of natural disasters as of man-made ones, but since it all gets erased, it's effectively peaceful, huh."
  • "You'd better be praying you don't vanish yourselves — how absurd, lol."